Now walking makes you a terrorist suspect...
Discussion
Anybody remember the Constable Savage sketch from Not the Nine o' Clock News?
Two wheels: good. Two legs: terrorist suspect
By David Lister, Scotland Correspondent
WITH her year-round tan, long blonde hair and designer clothes, Sally Cameron does not look like a threat to national security.
But the 34-year-old property developer has joined the ranks of Britain’s most unlikely terrorist suspects after being held for hours for trespassing on a cycle path.
Ms Cameron was being hailed yesterday as Scotland’s answer to Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old heckler manhandled out of the Labour Party conference last month. She was arrested under the Terrorism Act for walking along a cycle path in the harbour area of Dundee.
Yesterday, after receiving a letter from the Tayside procurator fiscal’s office informing her that she would not be prosecuted, Ms Cameron said: “It is utterly ridiculous that such an inoffensive person as myself should be subject to such heavy-handed treatment.”
She was walking from her office in Dundee to her home in the suburb of Broughty Ferry when she was arrested under new anti-terrorist legislation and held for four hours.
She said: “I’ve been walking to work every morning for months and months to keep fit. One day, I was told by a guard on the gate that I couldn’t use the route any more because it was solely a cycle path and he said, if I was caught doing it again, I’d be arrested.
“The next thing I knew, the harbour master had driven up behind me with a megaphone, saying, ‘You’re trespassing, please turn back’. It was totally ridiculous. I started laughing and kept on walking. Cyclists going past were also laughing.
“But then two police cars roared up beside me and cut me off, like a scene from Starsky and Hutch, and officers told me I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The harbour master was waffling on and (saying that), because of September 11, I would be arrested and charged.”
Ms Cameron, who said that at one stage one of the officers asked her to stop laughing, described the incident as “like a scene from the movie Erin Brockovich, with all the dock workers cheering me and telling me to give them hell”. She said: “I was told that the cycle path was for cyclists only, as if walkers and not cyclists were the only ones likely to plant bombs. There are no signs anywhere saying there are to be no pedestrians.
“They took me to the police station and held me for several hours before charging me and releasing me.”
She said that she was particularly galled by the letter from the procurator fiscal’s office, which said that she would not be prosecuted even though “the evidence is sufficient to justify bringing you before the court on this criminal charge”.
Keith Berry, the harbour master at Forth Ports Dundee, said yesterday that Ms Cameron had been seen as a “security risk”. Speaking about the incident, which took place in May, he said: “We contacted the police in regards to this matter because the woman was in a secure area which forbids people walking. It was seen as a security risk. We were following guidelines in requirement with the port security plan set up by the Government.”
A spokesman for Forth Ports said: “We will robustly prosecute anyone who breaches these new security measures because they have been introduced by the Government and we are obliged to enforce them.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1829289,00.html
Two wheels: good. Two legs: terrorist suspect
By David Lister, Scotland Correspondent
WITH her year-round tan, long blonde hair and designer clothes, Sally Cameron does not look like a threat to national security.
But the 34-year-old property developer has joined the ranks of Britain’s most unlikely terrorist suspects after being held for hours for trespassing on a cycle path.
Ms Cameron was being hailed yesterday as Scotland’s answer to Walter Wolfgang, the 82-year-old heckler manhandled out of the Labour Party conference last month. She was arrested under the Terrorism Act for walking along a cycle path in the harbour area of Dundee.
Yesterday, after receiving a letter from the Tayside procurator fiscal’s office informing her that she would not be prosecuted, Ms Cameron said: “It is utterly ridiculous that such an inoffensive person as myself should be subject to such heavy-handed treatment.”
She was walking from her office in Dundee to her home in the suburb of Broughty Ferry when she was arrested under new anti-terrorist legislation and held for four hours.
She said: “I’ve been walking to work every morning for months and months to keep fit. One day, I was told by a guard on the gate that I couldn’t use the route any more because it was solely a cycle path and he said, if I was caught doing it again, I’d be arrested.
“The next thing I knew, the harbour master had driven up behind me with a megaphone, saying, ‘You’re trespassing, please turn back’. It was totally ridiculous. I started laughing and kept on walking. Cyclists going past were also laughing.
“But then two police cars roared up beside me and cut me off, like a scene from Starsky and Hutch, and officers told me I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act. The harbour master was waffling on and (saying that), because of September 11, I would be arrested and charged.”
Ms Cameron, who said that at one stage one of the officers asked her to stop laughing, described the incident as “like a scene from the movie Erin Brockovich, with all the dock workers cheering me and telling me to give them hell”. She said: “I was told that the cycle path was for cyclists only, as if walkers and not cyclists were the only ones likely to plant bombs. There are no signs anywhere saying there are to be no pedestrians.
“They took me to the police station and held me for several hours before charging me and releasing me.”
She said that she was particularly galled by the letter from the procurator fiscal’s office, which said that she would not be prosecuted even though “the evidence is sufficient to justify bringing you before the court on this criminal charge”.
Keith Berry, the harbour master at Forth Ports Dundee, said yesterday that Ms Cameron had been seen as a “security risk”. Speaking about the incident, which took place in May, he said: “We contacted the police in regards to this matter because the woman was in a secure area which forbids people walking. It was seen as a security risk. We were following guidelines in requirement with the port security plan set up by the Government.”
A spokesman for Forth Ports said: “We will robustly prosecute anyone who breaches these new security measures because they have been introduced by the Government and we are obliged to enforce them.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,170-1829289,00.html
I don't blame her! This is the funniest thing I've read in ages. All we need is a few more insane Jobsworths to show what this anti-terrrr' legislation could take us. Patriot act here we come! 
It does warrant the question, "What sort of person are we employing in these roles now? Are they so devoid of intelligence will that they are incapable of questioning the stupidity of their own actions and the dictates of their managers?"
Would you not ask? I certainly would. I would require clarification, for instance...
It that just bicycles or are tricycles permitted?
Is it just people on foot that are to be challenged or anyone not on wheels? eg. Skaters, scooter riders, skateboarders. Have studies beeen conducted to "prove" that terrorists can't ride bicycles? Are we allowed to arrest people for dismounting to replace their chains upon their sprockets or to repair a puncture? Define cyclist, is it merely someone riding such a means of conveyance or do they only have to have one in their posession at the time? ie. Walking whilst pushing their bicycle. Do they really think that the possiblility of having their bike nicked is a suitable deterent for would-be terrorists?
WTF, the world's gone mad.
To add, so let me get this right...
It's now a crime to walk on a cycle path, but where established law dictates that it is a crime to cycle upon a footpath you choose to turn a blind eye? In the words of Littlejohn, "You couldn't make it up!"
>> Edited by TeamD on Monday 17th October 11:44
Would you not ask? I certainly would. I would require clarification, for instance...
It that just bicycles or are tricycles permitted?
Is it just people on foot that are to be challenged or anyone not on wheels? eg. Skaters, scooter riders, skateboarders. Have studies beeen conducted to "prove" that terrorists can't ride bicycles? Are we allowed to arrest people for dismounting to replace their chains upon their sprockets or to repair a puncture? Define cyclist, is it merely someone riding such a means of conveyance or do they only have to have one in their posession at the time? ie. Walking whilst pushing their bicycle. Do they really think that the possiblility of having their bike nicked is a suitable deterent for would-be terrorists?
WTF, the world's gone mad.
To add, so let me get this right...
It's now a crime to walk on a cycle path, but where established law dictates that it is a crime to cycle upon a footpath you choose to turn a blind eye? In the words of Littlejohn, "You couldn't make it up!"
>> Edited by TeamD on Monday 17th October 11:44
I think the important point is that many police see themselves as 'the law' in a Judge Dredd kind of way, and resent the idea that judges, lawyers etc might prevent them from doing exactly what they want.
What they have always wanted is to be able to arrest people that they don't like the look of, who answer back to them, or who they just think have committed and offense ( but have no evidence ), or frankly people who have annoyed them in some way.
That is what these new powers have given them on a plate. It's no suprise they have immediately begun using these powers at will.
What they have always wanted is to be able to arrest people that they don't like the look of, who answer back to them, or who they just think have committed and offense ( but have no evidence ), or frankly people who have annoyed them in some way.
That is what these new powers have given them on a plate. It's no suprise they have immediately begun using these powers at will.
just seen her interviewed on the C4 lunch time news, and it seems its a load of hype over nothing!
she wasn't held "for several hours"....just 2 , and she wasn't charged under the terrorism act, but a ports act. the police didn't mention the terrorism act, and the harbour master just mentioned 9/11, not the the terrorism act.
so it just seems the press are making a story out of nothing again!
>> Edited by eccles on Monday 17th October 12:26
she wasn't held "for several hours"....just 2 , and she wasn't charged under the terrorism act, but a ports act. the police didn't mention the terrorism act, and the harbour master just mentioned 9/11, not the the terrorism act.
so it just seems the press are making a story out of nothing again!
>> Edited by eccles on Monday 17th October 12:26
eccles said:
just seen her interviewed on the C4 lunch time news, and it seems its a load of hype over nothing!
she wasn't held "for several hours"....just 2 , and she wasn't charged under the terrorism act, but a ports act. the police didn't mention the terrorism act, and the harbour master just mentioned 9/11, not the the terrorism act.
so it just seems the press are making a story out of nothing again!
>> Edited by eccles on Monday 17th October 12:26
err she was still detained for two hours for walking along a path. A trifle excessive.
Obviously its part of the pro-bicycle conspiracy, they have slowly and subtley been taking over, adding their insidious bike lanes, slowly reclaiming the roads AND footpaths as well, greedy sods.
eccles said:
just seen her interviewed on the C4 lunch time news, and it seems its a load of hype over nothing!
she wasn't held "for several hours"....just 2 , and she wasn't charged under the terrorism act, but a ports act. the police didn't mention the terrorism act, and the harbour master just mentioned 9/11, not the the terrorism act.
so it just seems the press are making a story out of nothing again!
>> Edited by eccles on Monday 17th October 12:26
I think you've missed the point, the fact that she was treated differently simply because she was not on a bicycle is entirely ridiculous.
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